Research Position
Doctoral Researcher in Motor Control
Wissenschaftliche/r Mitarbeiter/in
(salary grade TV-L E 13, 65%)
The University of Muenster, Germany, invites applications for a doctoral position working with the Collaborative Research Centre (CRC 1410) Hybrid Societies – Humans Interacting with Embodied Technologies at the Chemnitz University of Technology. The position is available from 1 May 2020 until 30 April 2024. Currently, the regular working time for full (100%) employment is 39 hours and 50 minutes per week. Part-time employment at a reduced percentage may be negotiated. The University of Münster will be the employer and primary location for the position, and regular meetings/visits in Chemnitz will be mandatory.

Research Environment and Tasks:
The CRC 1410 Hybrid Societies researches human interaction with Embodied Digital Technologies (EDTs) as artificial bodies moving in real or virtual environments (www.hybrid-societies.org). The interdisciplinary research at the CRC, which ultimately aims to ensure smooth and efficient encounters between humans and embodied technologies in hybrid societies, is guided by two leading questions: What is required to ensure that humans can coordinate with EDTs as smoothly as with conspecifics? How can EDTs be designed to meet these requirements? Cooperating researchers from psychology, engineering, computer science, human movement science, linguistics and gesture studies, sociology, law studies, physics, and mathematics investigate the interaction of humans with EDTs from the level of single actions up to the attribution of intentionality.

Project description:
The main goal of the proposed project is to understand joint action coordination in human dyadic handover tasks. Therefore, this project will investigate the grip force dynamics and upper limb movement kinematics in human dyads when handing over different objects. Composition of the dyads will be varied with respect to the age of giver and the receiver. In a further step, the kinematic synergies of reach and grasp will be extracted. The goal is, to investigate if artificial agents can make use of information on observed synergies of reach and grasp movement in a joint handover task to plan and initiate its own response motion at an early point. Initially, response planning will be tested in simulations and validated against kinetic data.
Researchers in the CRC Hybrid Societies contribute to the CRC’s joint research activities and actively participate in, for example, research colloquia, lecture series, and workshops. While working in this position, you build your academic profile. We expect you to publish your scientific results in highly ranked international journals and at well recognized international conferences.

Requirements:
• Master’s of Science in motor control, human movement science or related subjects
• Good knowledge of movement science (kinematic and kinetics)
• Basic knowledge of computational neuroscience, robotics and robot control would be advantageous
• Programming skills (R, LabView, Matlab) are desirable
• Strong interest in interdisciplinary research
• Fluent English (both written and spoken). German Language skills will also be helpful to facilitate communication with older participants

Application procedure:
Applicants should send their complete application including: a motivation letter (1 page) with a brief description of personal qualifications and research interests, curriculum vitae, copies of degree certificates and academic transcripts, and a publication list, preferably as a single PDF file via email to adalhaus@uni-muenster.de (please include “CRC1410_A01” as the subject line). The closing date for applications is 10 March 2020. Please, do not include web links in electronic applications. Please, send copies only. Original documents will not be returned.

Address:
University of Münster Institute of Sport and Exercise Sciences Neuromotor Behavior and Exercise Prof. Dr. Claudia Voelcker-Rehage
Horstmarer Landweg 62b
48149 Münster Germany
a.dalhaus@uni-muenster.de
The University of Münster is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to increasing the proportion of women academics. Consequently, we actively encourage applications by women. Female candidates with equivalent qualifications and academic achievements will be preferentially considered within the framework of the legal possibilities. We also welcome applications from candidates with severe disabilities. Disabled candidates with equivalent qualifications will be preferentially considered.
Employment will be governed by the provisions of the German law on fixed-term contracts in academia (Wissenschaftszeitvertragsgesetz).
Information on the collection and processing of personal data is provided at https://sso.uni-muenster.de/de/en/da...rklaerung.html